Belarusian History in The Russian Empire - Russo-Polish Power Struggle

Russo-Polish Power Struggle

Initially, most of the Polish feudal system was retained in Belarusian lands, the polonized Litvin Catholic Szlachta dominated the territories, whilst most of the Ruthenian population was peasantry. Unlike the strong nationalist drive that was seen in Right-Bank Ukraine, a legacy of the Cossacks following the partitions, most of the Belarusian lands remained inert in terms of changes.

Polish nationalism sparked the rise of Belarusian self-identity. In 1830, the szlachta, began the November Uprising and after its failure, Nicholas I began a systematic policy of cracking down on Polish influence in the lands of modern Belarus that were claimed by Russian tsars as White Russia. First the ruling class was removed, and the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, at the Synod of Polotsk reverted to Eastern Orthodoxy under the leadership of Joseph Semashko in 1839.

Meanwhile, since mid-1830s, ethnographic works about Belarus began to appear, the tentative attempts of study of language were taken up (e.g., Belarusian grammar by Shpilevskiy). The Belarusian literature tradition began to re-form, basing on the folk language instead of the written Ruthenian, initiated by the works of Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich, Jan Czeczot, Jan Barszczewski and others. Still, a large part of the literature had to hide itself behind the brands "Polish" or sometimes even "Bulgarian", because Russian censorship did not tolerate the Belarusian national movement up until the Revolution of 1905.

In beginning of 1860s, both pro-Russian and pro-Polish parties in Belarusian lands had begun to realise the that the decisive role in the upcoming conflicts was shifting to the peasantry. So, quite an amount of propaganda appeared, targeted at peasantry and prepared in he Belarusian language. Notably, the anti-Russian, anti-Tsarist, anti-Orthodox "Manifest" and newspaper "Peasants' Truth" (1862–1863) by Kalinowski, the anti-Polish, anti-Revolutionary, pro-Orthodox booklets and poems (1862).